Having an understanding that growth is not everything about your child’s journey towards becoming a happy, resilient and successful son or daughter is an important aspect of parenting. When you witness changes in the physical characteristics such as weight and height of your child, this is what we refer to as growth. These physical changes are visible as the child pass through a sequence of growth stages.

Growth is dependent and it contributes to the development of many other areas that are crucial for your child to thrive in life. Early childhood is the period where children experience the most rapid growth and development in their lives. This is not only about the changes in physical characteristics. It also involves the changes of a child’s emotions, behavior, personality, thinking and comprehension and many other skills which are identified as emotional, language and communication, intellectual skills as well as social skills.

What is growth? What is development?

Physical growth includes acquisition of full height and appropriate weight along with an increase in size of organs in the body of a child. Development of your child is not limited to growth; it goes beyond physical progression allowing your child to achieve crucial skills which enable him or her to perform various tasks in their daily life starting from the simplest such as smiling to complicated ones such as solving puzzles, making friendships or showing empathy.

Let’s learn more about the developmental domains of your child!

Knowing the areas which are crucial for the all-round development of your child is extremely vital. This is when you become knowledgeable and meaningful in the support you provide your little one to go through their developmental milestones successfully. Healthy and balanced development of our precious children is always a duty assigned to us as the adults who love and care for them.

There are five main developmental domains which we focus mostly during early years. They are,

• Physical development
• Intellectual or the cognitive development
• Language and communication development
• Emotional and behavioral development
• Social development

Physical development includes your child acquiring skills that enable them to walk, run, climb, drawing, pick up small items, manipulate objects, play instruments and so on. These tasks require the development of small and large muscles in the body.

Cognitive development involves the maturation of intellectual capabilities such as imagination, creativity, problem solving, memorization as well as understanding concepts of life and of the world.

Language and communication development involves your child developing his or her ability to understand and use language to communicate well with others.

Emotional and behavioral development in your child is usually measured by observing their interactions with others in everyday situations. Their ability to understand own emotions and those of the others, how they respond (both emotionally and behaviorally) and navigate emotional situations are constantly influenced by the development of the other domains outlined above.

Social development in children referred to the development of skills which improves their ability to relate to others and themselves in social setups, form meaningful relationship and developing a social identity. This involves nurturing qualities such as empathy, compassion, sharing, cooperation, listening and using manners.

A question for you to ponder about ..

What do I think is the most important developmental domain of all?

What would happen if I consider some of the developmental areas are extremely vital than the others?

Conclusion

All developmental domains are equally important. They are interconnected and progress simultaneously. Progression in one domain supports the progression of all the other domains. Therefore, in my point of view, just one developmental area alone cannot help your child achieve his or her fullest potential. Parents and adults around children should support the development of all aspects discussed above.

If we consider some developmental domains as superior to others, we might end up neglecting a part of the development of our loving children. This will create an imbalance in the overall development of the child and lead to limiting the child’s opportunity to thrive.

Points to ponder

• Growth and development are not the same.
• Realizing this can transform how you support your child to thrive.
• Our support for children become meaningful when we focus on development and not only growth.
• All round development in children occurs mainly in five domains, these domains include physical, Intellectual, cognitive, Language and communication, emotional and behavioral as well as social.
• None of these domains are superior to the other domains.
• In order to witness a happy, healthy and a resilient child these developmental domains should progress together.
• All round development allows children to achieve their fullest potential in life.

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